Those Triplets, Pulling Pranks
by Tsukiko x3
Summary: The triplet servants of the Trancy household decide to mix-match their appearances in order to fool the master of the house, Alois Trancy.


I got completely inspired to write this from a fanart I saw on Deviantart. So I wholeheartedly give thanks to the owner of that picture for inspiring me so. ;3 It was kind of hard to write this, I mean making the triplets talk and everything... XD It was just weird, and I had to derive their personalities on my own. Anyway I hope I did a decent job... and I TOTALLY love the idea of the triplets doing this. I hope it doesn't get confusing at all, because mind you I got a bit confused myself one or two times. XD'

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They were obedient, extremely loyal, no one would ever suspect them of stepping a toe out of the line of their duties. However, that was a biased assumption. For even the three deathly-loyal triplet servants of the Trancy household could have a devious side to themselves...

It all started one evening after the triplets were excused from their work for the day. They usually took this time to rant to each other about how annoyingly demanding the master had been today, and how they're sure that Claude sometimes left them to do such chores which he himself didn't want to do...

It was Thompson who suggested the devious idea.

"We should all switch hairstyles and fool everyone tomorrow in the household!"

"That's a brilliant idea!" Canterbury agreed immediately; these two usually always agreed on a lot of things, unlike Timber, who was more serious about their work.

"But if we're caught... won't the Master and even Claude get angry with us?" Timber said cautiously. "I mean, we'd be fooling around when we should be doing our duties-"

"When was the last time we neglected our duties?" Thompson butted in. "Right, never."

"And don't you want to mess around with that 'Master' of ours even once?" Canterbury added in, putting obvious sarcasm on the word 'master'.

Timber thought on it for a moment, until he finally agreed with his two brothers. It was probably actually impossible for the triplets to ever disagree. And he had to admit to himself, it _would_ be fun to mess around with the Trancy master even once...

"Right. Let's do it."

So the next day, the three styled their hair differently, which was mainly just the fringes. Timber styled his fringes to the right, so he looked like Canterbury. Thompson divided his right down to the center of his forehead, so he resembled Timber. And lastly, Canterbury parted his to the left to take on a more Thompson-like appearance. There was absolutely no way to tell that they had mixed-matched their appearances.

"Now remember, Thompson," Timber said to his brother before they left their room that morning to attend to their breakfast duties for the master. "You have to stand in the middle, while Canterbury stands on the left and then me the right."

The two nodded, feeling odd being in a different place now of where they usually stood.

Hannah was already in the kitchen by the time the triplets arrived to help carry out the master's breakfast. She didn't suspect a thing.

"Here, Thompson," she said, handing Canterbury a tray which had a teapot and teacup placed on it. "Bring the master's tea out."

In actuality, she had technically told _Thompson_ to bring the tea out, right? So, Canterbury handed the tray to Thompson who was standing in the middle. When Hannah turned back to three, she wore a puzzled expression on her face.

"But I told Thompson to..."

"But I am Thompson," Thompson replied with a straight face.

Hannah stared at him for a minute. "No, you're Timber."

"No, I'm Timber," Timber said from the right side.

Hannah looked even more confused now. "No, you're... Canterbury..."

"That would be me," Canterbury said from the left.

"..." Hannah had figured them out now. "I see," she said quietly. "You three have mixed your places and appearances, haven't you?"

Silence.

"When you should be more serious about your duties..."

The triplets scowled. They didn't need her giving them a lecture about duties, and blah blah...

"We weren't really intending to trick you," Timber told her. "Just the master and Claude really."

"Oh?"

"Yes, so please don't rat us out," said Thompson.

"You would like to see the master made out to be a fool, wouldn't you?" Canterbury jumped in.

Hannah smiled curtly. "Hmm... maybe I would..."

And with that, she handed Thompson a tray of food which contained the master's breakfast. "Bring this out to the master please, _Timber._"

The triplets were pleased to see that Hannah was willing to co-operate with them. Yes, this would be fun indeed...

The four now entered out into the main room, where their master, Alois Trancy, was sitting impatiently at the grand long table. Claude was nowhere to be seen, surprisingly. Alois looked up the moment he saw his servants enter, and was wearing a frown on his face.

"You're _late_," he said in a nasty voice.

Without saying anything, Hannah set a tray of sweets upon the table while the triplets did likewise setting their own trays down. Alois picked up his teacup which was brimming with hot tea and set it to his lips. But then he suddenly lowered it and scowled.

"This is Ceylon, isn't it? I said I wanted Earl Grey."

Of course, the master had made no such request, and the four servants knew this. He was just so bratty that he made ridiculous lies like this on a whim... Unfortunately for Hannah, who was standing near his side, got hot Ceylon tea splashed onto her face from Alois' hand.

"I can see you're as incompetent as ever, Hannah," he said in an even more nastier voice now. Hannah only flinched slightly, quite used to the mistreatment she got from her master. Alois now stood up and faced the three triplets, who looked back at him unblinking.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe," he began to chant, pointing at each of them in turn with each word. A prim smile curved on his lips. Finally, his last moe landed on Canterbury, or who he thought was Canterbury. "You. You get me the Earl Grey, Canterbury."

Canterbury, the true Canterbury, was really standing on the left side and not the right, which was Timber. Canterbury bowed his head and turned to leave.

"Wait! I didn't tell you to do it, Thompson!" Alois said angrily.

Canterbury turned around and glanced back at his master. "You told Canterbury to do it, your Highness. And I am he, and we must obey orders given to us, shouldn't we?"

Alois' lip curled in irritation at being talked back to by a mere servant. Then, he smiled, a wicked smile. "Oh I see. You're just being smart with me."

"Nothing of the sort," replied Canterbury. "I am simply following your order."

"Hmph, I can see that you're as incompetent as Hannah. Timber, get me my tea instead."

Timber bowed his head and turned to leave as well, just as Canterbury had done so a moment ago. Once again, Alois was thrown into confusion when Timber left from the left side, and that is where Canterbury should have been.

"Now I can see you're ready to follow my order, Canterbury!" Alois barked. "But I've already told Timber to do it!"

"But your Highness, I am Timber."

They could see that their master was getting even more frustrated now. It was actually quite funny, and the three had to restrain the urge to smirk.

Alois wagged one finger at Timber, and was about to say something hotly to him, until they were suddenly interrupted. Claude stepped into the room now, and immediately the master began to whine to him.

"Claude! I'm so glad to see you!" He glared at the triplets menacingly, who were all stepping back into place now. "These three have gotten big-headed, and are disobeying my orders!"

Claude looked at the triplets behind his glasses with raised eyebrows at their disobedience. "Is this true, Ton-san, Chin-san, Kan-san?"

The triplets made no reply. Claude sighed, then looked down at the table. "I can see that the master's breakfast has gotten cold. And there is tea on the tablecloth..." He directed his eyes at the three. "Ton-san, Chin-san, go get something hot for the master to eat, and Kan-san, clean up the stain."

Alois was expecting the triplets to mess up again, and disobey even Claude. But he was thrown in disarray when they did not, and simply got to their jobs correctly. If Alois had been sharper, and had known his servants better, he would have noticed that the triplets had styled their hair rightfully back to their usual styles, and had moved back into their regular places.

"I see no disobedience here, your Highness," Claude said. He knew the triplets well, of course, so not even they could have fooled him with their mixed-matched appearances as they had for Hannah and Alois. And the three knew this; they knew they couldn't trick Claude from the start.

"But... but they were all disobeying me a moment ago...!" Alois sputtered angrily, confused.

"Perhaps your Highness had not gotten enough sleep last night, and was imagining things?"

"I was not, Claude!"

Now it was really, really, hard for the triplets to suppress their laughs, Hannah as well. See, even they could be more clever and devious than the master of the Trancy household at times...


End file.
